In this 2008 photo provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Jesus Zambada is shown. Once a top lieutenant in drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's cartel, Zambada is now a cooperating witness describing the Sinolao cartel's history of greed, cunning and violence as it built a cocaine-smuggling empire that made billions of dollars by flooding the market in large U.S. cities. (U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York via AP)

El Chapo trial witness: Ex-Mexico security chief was bribed

November 20, 2018 - 3:44 pm

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A government witness at the U.S. trial of the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo says his cartel bribed the country's former top security chief and another person who once worked under the current president-elect.

Former cartel member Jesus Zambada testified Tuesday that in the mid-2000s he gave $6 million in drug money to the security chief, Genero Garcia Luna.

Zambada also claimed that more million-dollar payments were made to Gabriel Regino, who worked in the administration of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration when Lopez Obrador was mayor of Mexico City.

There was no immediate response Tuesday from Garcia Luna. Regino denied the allegations on Twitter.